


19

by That_Girl_Who_Is_WAY_Too_Cheerful



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angsty but also kinda fluffy?, Gen, i love these kids they're so sweet, request from tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-03
Updated: 2020-12-03
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27859298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/That_Girl_Who_Is_WAY_Too_Cheerful/pseuds/That_Girl_Who_Is_WAY_Too_Cheerful
Summary: Lloyd has never liked birthdays.
Relationships: Lloyd Garmadon & Kai
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	19

**Author's Note:**

> A request from an anon on Tumblr. My attempt at a "a ninjago birthday fic". I've had a really sad day so this is... rather angsty, and short, but I hope the ninjago fandom like my first dip into the fic side of the fandom. You can find my tumblr [here](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/dumbfandomdoodles) if you want to see more! ENjoy!

Lloyd didn’t like birthdays. He never had, really, spending them at Darkley, but… well, since he’d skipped a few too many years of his life at once, birthdays were just plain weird. For one thing, how old he was was usually an educated guess. 

_19 this year._

But they didn’t know that for sure. For all he knew, he was 21 and no one had told him. The others were 21. Nya was 20. 

So why was he stuck with 19? He didn’t have anything _against_ being 19. No, not at all. But he was younger than them. Always younger. 

Wasn’t he the green ninja, dammit? The future master, the leader… 

Was that fair? To expect the youngest to have all of the answers, the maturity, the capability? 

“Whatcha doing up here, bud?” Kai took a seat next to him, carefully navigating the roof tiles so as not to knock them off.

“Thinking.” He turned away from Kai. This wasn’t what he wanted, right then. He just wanted to be _alone._ For once. 

“Well… uh.. It’s your birthday! Come down and celebrate!” _Gosh, he was a horrible person._ Of course they wanted to celebrate with him. And here he was, sulking on the roof. All because he was feeling a little bit lost. They needed him. There wasn’t time to consider how he _felt_.

He opened his mouth to say “okay”, but what came out was something resembling a sob. Suddenly he was shaking, his hands over his mouth as if he could stuff the tears back inside of him, but they kept coming. Horrible, stupid, messy tears. 

They took over his senses, so he didn’t register Kai’s frantic whispers, or notice the arms now wrapped firmly around him, until there was a hand gently brushing away the salty pain leaking from his eyes. 

“Hey, hey, no tears, Lloyd, Lloyd, come on, bud, stay with me here, _breathe._ ” And he does, because it’s _Kai,_ because he knows these words, because they were there the day that Kai saved his life, because he’s heard them so many times because Kai _loves_ him. 

Kai doesn’t expect him to be the green ninja all of the time. 

“I’m...” He forced out, eventually, “I’m not really nineteen, am I?” But it’s less of a question, and more of a statement. 

“Is _that_ what this is about?” Kai sighed, but Lloyd knew that he wasn’t judging him. “Yeah, Lloyd, no shit. You’re like… twelve.”

“But I did the right thing.” He looked to Kai for confirmation. Because _dammit_ if he didn’t need it. He’d spend the rest of his life regretting that split second decision, but he _knows_ he knows he knows that it was important. That it saved lives. 

“Yeah, Lloyd.. You did the right thing.” Kai’s voice goes high at the end, and when Lloyd looks over, he’s met with something he’s never seen before.

Kai is crying. 

They sat in silence, for a while, tears streaming down their faces, silently, save a few stray sniffles. 

“We should probably go back down. Zane baked you a cake, but knowing Cole, he’s probably going to have to make another one, we’ve been up here so long.” Kai broke the silence. It earned him a shaky laugh from Lloyd, and he grinned. “Come on, birthday boy.”

Lloyd followed him back down to the kitchen, and when he’s presented with a “19” cake, it didn’t feel like a weight on his chest anymore. 

It still wasn’t right, of course, and it would never really be, but he had people who loved him. 

They would make it better, every year, until he could forget that the age on his cakes and cards would never be quite right. 

They’d make it all alright. 

“Happy birthday!!!”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [19(PODFID)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27885490) by [WhaleKingdom (BadFeelin)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadFeelin/pseuds/WhaleKingdom)




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